Final: Texas 41, Oklahoma State 36

FIRST QUARTER UPDATE: Longhorns and Cowboys trade blows in first quarter.

STILLWATER, Okla. – Through 15 minutes of play at Boone Pickens Stadium, No. 12 Texas and Oklahoma State are keeping up with the Big 12’s torrid scoring pace. The Longhorns took a 21-14 lead into the second quarter on Saturday night.

OSU has a long tradition of jumping out to early leads on the Longhorns in Stillwater, and the Cowboys wasted little time in continuing that. On the game’s second play from scrimmage, Joseph Randle took a handoff, juked UT safety Kenny Vaccaro and broke a tackle by Adrian Phillips on his way to a 69-yard touchdown run.

Vaccaro would atone for that mistake on OSU’s next drive, as he intercepted a J.W. Walsh pass to set up the second of two early touchdown passes from David Ash. The first came on a perfectly thrown 44-yard deep ball to Jaxon Shipley, and that duo hooked up again on a wheel route that left Shipley wide open for a 20-yard score that put UT ahead 14-7.

The Cowboys came up with another big play to tie the score on a 44-yard pass from Walsh to Josh Stewart, but the Longhorns came right back. D.J. Monroe danced through a couple of tackles and raced to a 100-yard kickoff return, the third return touchdown of his career.

HALFTIME UPDATE: Scoring slows, UT holds halftime lead

STILLWATER, Okla. – A missed scoring opportunity and a continuing string of missed tackles left No. 12 Texas with plenty to ponder as the Longhorns took a 21-17 lead into halftime at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday.

After scoring on its first two possessions of the game and adding another touchdown on a D.J. Monroe kickoff return in the first quarter, the Longhorns stalled offensively in the second. They did have one great chance to extend their lead when David Ash threw a perfect deep ball to Mike Davis down the left sideline, but Davis couldn’t hang on in the end zone.

Adding to UT’s difficulty in bringing down OSU ball carriers is the fact that the Longhorns are dealing with multiple personnel issues on defense. After starting the game playing without linebacker Jordan Hicks (hip) and tackle Brandon Moore (virus), UT also lost safety Adrian Phillips and tackle Desmond Jackson to injuries in the first half.

Phillips returned late in the second quarter. Jackson did not.
At halftime, Ash had 123 yards on 12-of-16 passing with two touchdowns. OSU’s Joseph Randle led all rushers with 147 yards on 15 carries.

THIRD QUARTER UPDATE: Longhorns hang on to 2 point lead in Stillwater

STILLWATER, Okla. – David Ash and Jaxon Shipley hooked up for three Texas touchdowns at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday, but the No. 12 Longhorns still were left clinging to a 28-26 lead heading into the fourth quarter Saturday night.

The third Ash-to-Shipley TD came on a 7-yard fade route late in the third quarter. But OSU wasted little time in responding, taking advantage of a good kickoff return by Desmond Roland and using two quick passes by J.W. Walsh to reach the end zone.

Walsh’s 19-yard touchdown pass to John Goodlett originally was ruled incomplete, but that call was overturned on replay. The Cowboys failed to score on the two-point conversion attempt.

After throwing 115 passes without an interception dating back to last season, Ash made his first big mistake of 2012 when he hurled the ball over the middle on a third-and-12 play in OSU territory early in the third quarter. Tyler Johnson picked the ball off for the Cowboys, who converted that turnover into a Quinn Sharp field goal.

FOURTH QUARTER UPDATE: Longhorns score late to hold off Oklahoma State

STILLWATER, Okla. – Back in the Texas Longhorns’ early-21st-century heyday, two of the most successful quarterbacks in school history made names for themselves by rallying to beat Oklahoma State.

It’ll be a while before David Ash lives up to the legacies of Vince Young and Colt McCoy. But Saturday night, he got off to a pretty decent start.

Facing the most important drive of his career, Ash completed four passes in the last two minutes, including a 29-yarder to D.J. Grant on fourth down and a 32-yarder to Mike Davis. Those plays set up a Joe Bergeron touchdown that lifted the No. 12 Longhorns to a 41-36 victory over OSU at Boone Pickens Stadium.

On a night when UT’s defense spent much of its time looking nothing short of atrocious, Ash threw for 304 yards and bailed the Longhorns out. He accomplished most of that by coolly doing what he’d done for much of this season.

Trailing by five points midway through the fourth quarter, Ash completed two short passes, Johnathan Gray had five solid runs, and Bergeron unleashed a punishing 19-yard carry to keep an important Longhorns drive going. Bergeron’s 1-yard TD run put UT (4-0, 1-0 in the Big 12) ahead with 5:48 left. That was before Quinn Sharp hit a 24-yard field goal to give OSU (3-1, 0-1) the lead, setting the stage for the dramatic final minutes.

OSU made plenty of big plays through the air, but had taken the lead early in the fourth quarter by shredding a futile UT defense on the ground. Walsh began the go-ahead drive with a 50-yard scamper around the left end, and Joseph Randle finished it off with a 20-yard run and a 2-yard plunge into the end zone.

Ash’s third touchdown pass to Jaxon Shipley, a 7-yard fade to the right side of the end zone, put the Longhorns ahead 28-20 with 43 seconds left in the third quarter. But the Cowboys, using the big-play capabilities they’d been showing off all night, needed just 34 seconds to respond.

Taking advantage of Desmond Roland’s kickoff return to the UT 43, OSU struck back with two quick Walsh passes, one to Josh Stewart and the second a 20-yard strike to John Goodlett that was originally ruled incomplete but shown to be a touchdown on replay. OSU on its two-point conversion attempt, leaving it two points down heading into the final quarter.

After throwing 115 passes without an interception dating back to last season, Ash made his first big mistake of 2012 when he hurled the ball over the middle on a third-and-12 play in OSU territory early in the third quarter. Tyler Johnson picked the ball off for the Cowboys, who converted that turnover into a Quinn Sharp field goal.

In the Big 12 opener for both teams, OSU wasted little time in continuing their tradition of putting the Longhorns in a first-half Stillwater hole. On the game’s second play from scrimmage, Randle took a handoff, juked UT safety Kenny Vaccaro and broke a tackle by Adrian Phillips on his way to a 69-yard touchdown run.

Vaccaro, however, atoned for that mistake on OSU’s next drive, intercepting a J.W. Walsh pass to set up the second of two early touchdown passes from Ash. The first came on a perfectly thrown 44-yard deep ball to Shipley, and that duo hooked up again on a wheel route that left Shipley wide open for a 20-yard score that put UT ahead 14-7.

The Cowboys came up with another big play to tie the score on a 44-yard pass from Walsh to Josh Stewart, but the Longhorns came right back. D.J. Monroe danced through a couple of tackles and raced to a 100-yard kickoff return, the third return touchdown of his career.

Notes and injuries

Injuries mount for UT defense: After traveling to Oklahoma State without two defensive starters, the Longhorns faced even more attrition once the game began.

Safety Adrian Phillips, who has battled tackling problems for much of the season, stayed on the field for several minutes and left the game late in the first quarter after failing to bring down Josh Stewart on a 44-yard touchdown reception. He returned shortly before halftime.

Defensive tackle Desmond Jackson had to be helped off the field in the second quarter, leaving UT with just half of its usual four-man tackle rotation. Fellow starter Brandon Moore didn’t make the trip due to a virus.

The Longhorns also were playing without starting linebacker Jordan Hicks, who hurt his hip at Ole Miss two weeks ago.
On offense, starting tailback Malcolm Brown injured his left ankle in the first half but was declared available to return.

Flashback for Monroe: Texas senior D.J. Monroe’s 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter was the third of his career. But it had been a while since his previous one.

Monroe returned two kicks for touchdowns in his first four games as a Longhorn in 2009. Three years later, he became the school leader in career runbacks, breaking his tie with Fozzy Whittaker.